


Same eyepatch! (Kind of)

by ikugin



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack Relationships, Crack Treated Seriously, Crossover Pairings, Gen, Gender-Neutral My Unit | Byleth, M/M, Not Beta Read, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Post-Timeskip Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:27:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29217210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikugin/pseuds/ikugin
Summary: "So, you're Dainsleif I presume?" Dimitri greeted with a quirk of his brow."And you must be your highness, King Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd of Faerghus," Dainsleif responded, monotone.-Having dopplegangers just became something else. Sometimes, its not too bad though.
Relationships: Dainsleif (Genshin Impact)/Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Same eyepatch! (Kind of)

**Author's Note:**

> "hey so what if dainsleif and dimitri kissed" I said. This is before that. PRE RELATIONSHIP FLUFF YALL
> 
> I am both a fan of Dimitri and Dainsleif, so when I saw the both of them I knew i had to do something. C'mon. Don't look at me like that KJHFJKGHKLAGHJKAGHDJKA
> 
> THIS WAS WRITTEN AS A WARM UP so it is not beta read. ENJOY

It was not unfamiliar for Dimitri to be mistaken for someone else. Same for Dainsleif. Blonde hair was not uncommon for the people of Faerghus, and he had dealt with a couple impostors as well. Byleth had found it rather funny, suggesting that he wear something ostentatious to make himself stand out, as if the eyepatch wasn’t clear enough. For Dainsleif, he was one of the few left in Khaenri’ah who were blonde, aside from Lumine. When they still traveled, they were frequently mistaken for siblings. She had joked herself that maybe he was her missing brother instead. Regardless, when this did happen it usually was due to the fact that they were blonde. Not because someone else had a similar eyepatch and eye colour to go alongside it.

Now, to call Dainsleif’s corruption an eyepatch is a gross misconception. He did not go through the hell of the Abyss and back just for the power that flowed through his veins to be seen as something like a bad rendition of a costume. He’s gotten used to it however, despite his annoyance with it being referred to as such. Is it really an eyepatch if he can still _see_ through it? The point of eyepatches is to cover the said eye, is it not? But people are blinder than those who wear them apparently. A person with oddly coloured green hair was staring at him earlier, and when he had looked back they approached him. After taking a closer look at him however, they had apologised, saying that they were looking for someone else that looked like him. Something about blonde hair longer than his, blue eyes, and an eyepatch. Huh. Someone like him? That was something he didn’t know was possible. Intrigued, he had offered to help the person in their search for their own version of him. He learned that their name was Byleth. How… interesting.

In Dimitri’s case, his eyepatch was usually more of a curse than a cosmetic boon. Having reduced depth perception does not bode well in the battlefield, but ever since the war ended, he just finds that it strains his good eye more. Well, not like he chose to wear it anyway, nor did he choose to lose his eye. But it was never something that felt like a sort of _corruption_ however — so when a short blonde girl had approached him on that basis, he was rather weirded out. Byleth had told him to stay close to them when travelling to worlds such as these, but in the rather awkward fashion of Dimitri’s intense wonder, he had strayed away to look at the dandelions. When he looked back, they had gone. Fruitless searching had led him to the blonde girl that stood in front of him. Lumine, as he had learned, was travelling with her companion when she too had strayed away from him. She had mistaken Dimitri for him, since they bore such a striking resemblance that it was borderline creepy. Doppelgangers were not a foreign concept to Dimitri, but hearing about the man she had called Dainsleif had piqued his interest.

* * *

When they first see each other, it's the equivalent of seeing someone on the street wearing the same hat as you. Except this time, they stole your face and have a cooler cloak than you. Dimitri and Dainsleif spent a good chunk of the time staring at each other, while Lumine and Byleth conversed, mostly out of disbelief. 

“I apologise for my rudeness,” Dimitri had started, snapping out of his awe first, “Lumine had told me that I had looked similar to you, but I did not expect it to be like looking into a mirror,”

Dainsleif huffed. “Understandably enough. As Lumine told you, I am Dainsleif. You must be Dimitri, King of Faerghus I presume?”

“Yes, but Dimitri is much more preferable, since I am not here on business after all,” He answered.

“Byleth had informed me that you both were travelling for leisure,” Dainsleif continued, “But it is intriguing that you both had come to Teyvat, and further so that we happened to meet by chance,”

He chuckled. “The goddess truly works in mysterious ways, perhaps she had something in mind for us meeting this way!”

Dimitri took a short look at his face. Byleth truly knew what they were doing when they brought both of them here. He had been apprehensive about the idea, but they were persistent. It was a new experience for him to see the new hues of another world as bright as this — but despite it he could see that Dainsleif held a sort of melancholy when Lumine had brought them over to Khaenri’ah. A certain loneliness in that painful corruption that besotted his being, ever so distant. Byleth had noted it earlier to him when they had reconvened, but it seemed that Lumine was their point of interest, as they wanted to know the origins of this place.

“Perhaps.” Dainsleif brought a hand to the corrupted side of his face. “Regardless, I do not see how this part of my face bear any resemblance to your eyepatch,”

“Neither do I! Although if I could ask,” He said, pausing to observe Dainsleif’s expression, “What happened to your face to warrant such corruption? Lumine had told me a little about it, and I was fascinated by it. Although if it is too much to ask, feel free to decline.”

Dainsleif paused to observe Dimitri’s face. Lumine and Byleth were thoroughly engaged in their conversation, as the dawn over Khaenri’ah had set over them. The sun never truly set in Khaenri’ah however, so the sun’s glow stayed like a blinding blanket. The Khaenri’ahn tower was the only place one could see the sun, although it was reduced to ruins due to the calamity that befell them five hundred years ago. By this time, he should have told Lumine to go back down to rest — but her smile was so bright, devoid of the loneliness he would see sometimes when she looked at him. It reminded him of when he first saw her eyes sparkling in curiosity about Khaenri’ahn technology. Dimitri reminded him of her, in his curiosity. Maybe just this once he will humour him.

“Where duty follows, so does sacrifice,” He replied, turning to look at the sun, “And the cost of it is… painful sometimes, but there is no time to regret it,” 

“The only thing you can do is to hope that the sacrifice meant something to that duty, and that you can continue to follow through it despite the pain. To suffer without reason is pitiful.”

Dimitri hummed. Dainsleif had expected him to answer with a platitude, as most did in response to his cryptic answers. But instead, Dimitri had said this:

“That must be a rather heavy thing to carry on your shoulders,” voice as soft as the snow that buried his beloved Entombed City, but it is kinder than the cold, “Does it hurt? Both your corruption and duty, I mean.”

Dainsleif turned to look at Dimitri’s face and blinked. He did not expect that. But in closer examination of his face, he realised that he should have known. How did he not notice it before? The little scars that littered his jaw, proof of a battle worn soul. The azure of his eyes that were light but were as open as a book filled with old wounds that took so long to recover—

“...It does,” He mumbled loud enough for Dimitri to hear, “But that is the cost of sacrifice, is it not? I do not expect you to understand, regardless. We come from different worlds,"

“That much is true, Dain,” The other man responded, “But even a lion knows what sacrifice means, as do the trees in their own way. The essence of sacrifice is unanimous, and I will not claim to know what you have gone through, but I can understand where you come from.”

Dainsleif put a finger to his chin. “Did your sacrifice lead to your eyepatch? I would like to hear how that happened, in exchange for my tale of sacrifice.”

Dimitri gave another short chuckle, before settling into a smile. “If you don't mind hearing this old man’s tale, of course,”

“I think,” Dainsleif said, slight amusement in his tone, “We have more than enough time for it.”

**Author's Note:**

> come scream at me [on my twitter!](https://twitter.com/cylxius)


End file.
